Looking for a good Mechanic in North East Ohio

[brower]

Greetings,

I recently purchased an un-abused 1980 gs1100e. I am looking for a reputable mechanic in North East Ohio whom I can (dare I say) trust. I'm not looking for any major work (yet) but would like to talk with them about getting the bike road worthy as it will be used of daily commuting and sport touring.

Any information about a private mechanic or dealership who are willing to provide a waranty for the work would be worth the money.

Thank you for any input

[Larry D]

Greetings,

I recently purchased an un-abused 1980 gs1100e. I am looking for a reputable mechanic in North East Ohio whom I can (dare I say) trust. I'm not looking for any major work (yet) but would like to talk with them about getting the bike road worthy as it will be used of daily commuting and sport touring.

Any information about a private mechanic or dealership who are willing to provide a waranty for the work would be worth the money.

Thank you for any input

You can talk to us.....that's why we're all here. Most shops won't even look at these nice old bikes. If you can find someone who will, likely they have no clue what they're doing.
But here...there's gotta be a jillion years of experience and you can do the work yourself and save a ton of money.

[Redman]

Bro,

Welcome to GSR.

I would agree that you come here first for advise.

I Dont have a specific answer to your specific question.

But if you dont want to do the work yourself, or if you want to do some of the work but not all and you are looking for a mechanic; I can state the following from my experience:
- any shop that is actaully a dealer will not be a good choice. They may have a sign that comes right out and say "not work on any bike after model year XXXX" (about 12 years), or if they say they will work on it it will be very low priority. And I understand why they dont want to work on it at all.
- If you find a dealer that says they will work on it, look around at age of mechanics, probably younger or same age as your GS, so you think they would have much specific experience with your bike....?
- You will want to find an indepandent shop that is not any dealer.
- I had not so good experience taking my GS to a Zuki dealer (and this was 12 years ago, more described on my homepage). Then I found an indepandant shop with mechanic and manager in 40s or maybe 50s. Manager said to mechanic "hey, come look at this, is almost like the one I had." Mechanic came out and looked at it and did a good job of stated what year it was. That was great, and they charged reasonable rates. Had good experience there (more on this described on my homepage). Two years later they moved to out by the highway and became a Yammie dealer, rates went way up and did they did not really refuse to work on it but I could tell they were trying to say so without really saying so. Meantime I had already decided that I should do more of the work myself anyway. Have since found another independant shop for some of the other things.

.

[bwringer]

Look in the mirror...

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!

Hi Mr. brower,

You've been hanging around in the Appearance and Performance mods sections. I haven't had a chance to roll out the welcome mat for you. Here it is...

Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

Yes, we encourage each other to do all of our own work. Even a computer geek like me has been learning to take care of my bike with the help of all the good folk here. I've read about too many horror stories about "professionals" working on these classic bikes. I'll do my own, or get help from one of my own, thank you. I'm not saying that there are not good, honest wrenches out there who love these bikes. But they are few and far between.

Visit my site, see if there's a manual for your bike, roll up your sleeves, and ask questions. I'll help when I can. Others much more experienced than I will help too.

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff